Page 83 2023 PAINT THE PAPER PINK Lincoln Daily News Oct/Nov 2023 She was asked if she would share her story for the 2023 Paint the Paper Pink magazine and she said she would. This week, LDN met with Andrea and heard her story, which is remarkable, and one that every woman should hear. It began 10 years ago in October. She was on the verge of turning 40 as October is her birthday month. She was five years married to a man that she adored, had a good job, and was a health-conscious person. She worked out, ate right, never smoked, didn’t drink to excess, she was doing everything right. She and husband John had been working on their home, to put it on the market, and she had been helping a lot. So, when she started noticing a soreness in her right breast, she delegated the pain to being part of using muscles she didn’t always use. But the pain didn’t stop after a few days. Instead it got worse, and worse, and worse. On the last day that she was able to tolerate the pain, she did so but just barely. She said the pain hit her so hard that it buckled her knees. And of course, John said it was time to go to the doctor and see what was going on. She put off that visit a few days because she always had an annual check-up on her birthday, and that was just around the corner. When she did go for her check up she told her doctor that she had this horrific pain in her breast. He did the exam but found no cause for concern. However, Andrea wasn’t buying it. There was something wrong, she knew. Her doctor jokingly said that it was October and breast cancer awareness month. He joked that in October everyone thinks they have breast cancer. But at the same time, he said that because she was 40 and it was time to start doing mammograms anyway he would order a mammogram and a “diagnostic” on the right side. Runge was well endowed and had very dense breasts. The pain she was feeling was low on the inside of her right breast, but the doctor had felt nothing. When the mammogram was ordered for the next week, Andrea was not all that concerned. She said John had wanted to go with her and she had told him that would be silly. He would be left to sit in a waiting room while she had the test then it would be done, and he would have missed work for no reason. So, she went alone for her mammogram and diagnostic. Andrea remembers that the technician had been very happy and chatty….until she was not. The technician had left the screen visible and gone to get the radiologist. Andrea recalls specifically seeing the large black area in her breast. She said, “it was a black spot with horns, and it just looked evil.” The radiologist came in and asked her if she had seen the images, she said ‘well yes, I’m human, I looked.” The radiologist said they were going to order a needle biopsy on the spot. Those who know Andrea know that she likes shoes, and she has cute ones. On that day she was wearing her kitty shoes. They had kitty faces on the toes with rhinestones and such. She recalls looking down at those kitties and thinking “Well this is an interesting predicament we’ve gotten ourselves into kitties.” Before the biopsy Andrea said she wanted to go to the bathroom. The technician said she shouldn’t go alone. Andreas remembers at the Continued --
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